> don't we inflate this problem away?

That continues to be the assumption, yes. Disregarding all the waste being created in the process.

What's fascinating is the fact that the production of TAPE sees a 5x boost. That's the format with the slowest retrieval rate, only making sense for long-term storage, usually 1+ years.

So is there really 5x more valuable data now, or is it just not economic to actually judge the need for preserving data...?